Dakar 2027 leaves Saudi Arabia, putting Formula 1's Gulf finale under fresh scrutiny

The 2027 Dakar Rally will not be held in Saudi Arabia. That single sentence, confirmed jointly by the Amaury Sport Organisation and the Saudi Motorsport Company and endorsed by the FIA, has redrawn the early motorsport calendar and sharpened the questions facing every other major series still planning to race in the Gulf. The rally, scheduled for 1 to 15 January 2027, will still go ahead, but in a different territory that organisers say will be announced in the coming days.

The decision and what it means

The decision is described by ASO and the Saudi Motorsport Company as exceptional and one-off. It was taken, they said, following recent developments in the region, in close coordination with the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation and with the support of the FIA and the FIM, motorcycling's governing body. For an event built on endurance, logistics and vast open terrain, moving a rally of Dakar's scale at this stage is no small undertaking, and the wording matters: this is a relocation, not a cancellation.

Saudi Arabia has hosted the Dakar every year since 2020, seven consecutive editions that turned the kingdom's deserts, canyons and coastal routes into the rally's modern identity. Before that, the event spent a decade in South America, and before that it ran from Paris to Dakar in Senegal. The Saudi chapter brought huge investment, a long-term strategic partnership between ASO, the Saudi Motorsport Company, the Saudi federation and the FIA, and a new generation of fans who associate Dakar with the Empty Quarter's dunes rather than the Sahara.

That history is why the organisers were at pains to stress continuity. ASO said it is in direct contact with competitors, teams and partners to support them through the transition, and the FIA confirmed that Saudi Arabia will host Dakar 2028, the landmark 50th running of the rally. Both organisations said they are already working together to make that milestone exceptional. In other words, the partnership is not ending; it is pausing for one edition, for reasons the organisers have deliberately framed in restrained, diplomatic language.

Why the next fortnight matters

That assessment is now being read directly across to Formula 1. The championship is determined, according to the reporting that followed the Dakar announcement, to finish its season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and the Dakar move has put fresh attention on that determination. The two situations are not identical, and the distinction is important. Saudi Arabia, by the accounts in the reporting, has recently been directly affected by regional security disruption, including attacks attributed to Yemen's Houthi movement that have forced changes to several international events. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are, for now, proceeding with major international motorsport.

For Formula 1, the sporting stakes of any late change are unusually high. Veteran Swiss journalist Roger Benoit noted that if the remaining Middle East races were abandoned and Imola were used as an emergency finale, the championship picture could already be settled in favour of the current leader, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who won the United States Grand Prix at Austin. That is a hypothetical, not a prediction, and it is reported here as Benoit's observation, not as an official position of Formula 1 or the FIA. But it illustrates why a calendar decision in this part of the season is never merely logistical.

That is where the next two weekends become a practical test. The Qatar International Baja is scheduled for 28 to 31 October at Lusail, and the Dubai International Baja follows from 5 to 8 November. Both are cross-country events in the same broad discipline as Dakar, and both will require the same kind of international movement of teams, officials, media and equipment that a Grand Prix demands. If they run normally, they will be cited as evidence that international motorsport can continue operating in Qatar and the UAE. If they do not, the pressure on Formula 1's finale will intensify quickly.

What comes next

For Dakar itself, the immediate questions are practical. Where will the rally go, and how quickly can ASO confirm it? Reports have mentioned Africa as a possible destination, which would be a return to the continent where the event began, and have also mentioned the possibility of a prologue in Portugal or Spain. Neither has been officially confirmed, and this draft does not present either as settled. What is confirmed is the scale of the task: thousands of kilometres of route, bivouacs, medical cover, television production and border logistics, rebuilt in weeks rather than years.

The longer story, however, is about how motorsport balances tradition, commerce and safety. Dakar survived a move from Africa to South America, and then from South America to Saudi Arabia, because its identity proved bigger than any single landscape. The 2027 move will test that again, and it will test whether Formula 1's Gulf finale can be insulated from the same forces that moved Dakar. For now, the rally moves, the 2028 homecoming is promised, and the bajas in Lusail and Dubai will tell us, before Formula 1 arrives, how much of normal service remains.